S&P Global Market Intelligence

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has paused its Persian Gulf vessel evacuation three days after it was implemented following an attack on an Evergreen container ship sailing through the Strait of Hormuz on June 25.

The pressure is on to demonstrate how AI investments are starting to generate meaningful returns. Every executive asks, and every analyst demands answers on earnings calls. As firms shift their AI attention beyond operational efficiencies, are they recognizing the best place to track AI impact? Where you track sales impact – the CRM. But how can you trust the GenAI Sales Assistant surfaces up real opportunity insight? Or edits the correct subsidiary record on a highly complex organization.

As headlines spotlight AI-driven deals and high-growth tech valuations, a quieter but highly resilient segment of the market is gaining momentum. Investors are increasingly hungry for asset-heavy or domestic services targets that deliver stable cash flows, long asset lives, and insulation from rapid tech disruption. Join M&A practitioners as they discuss deal trends in niche sub-sectors where capital is flowing.

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PMI® survey data indicated a further robust rise in worldwide factory output in June, rounding off the strongest quarter for global manufacturing since 2021. However, the outlook for the rest of the year has darkened. Despite June seeing an easing of tensions surrounding the Middle East, with oil prices falling sharply to help allay concerns over recession among survey participants, business optimism has fallen and factories reported lower employment.

– Parabellum Investments (UK) acquired external data management platform Crux Informatics Inc. D.A. Davidson was financial adviser to Crux and Goodwin Procter LLP was legal advisor. – Corten Advisors UK LLP and Ampersand Management LLC completed their previously announced acquisition of drug development intelligence platform Beacon Intelligence from Hanson Wade Ltd. Alvarez & Marsal was financial adviser and Winston Taylor and Carey Olsen were legal advisers to Corten and Ampersand.

A surging crude oil market, inflationary pressures, and currency depreciation have been reshaping India's macroeconomic outlook since the onset of the conflict in the Middle East. The Indian equity market has also experienced heightened volatility since early 2026, driven by historic investment outflows and increased economic uncertainty tied to geopolitical risks.

The urgent need by utilities to meet growing demand and balance ratepayer affordability is forcing a more collaborative approach to customer-sited generation resources and grid flexibility solutions, experts said during a June 29 briefing hosted by Advanced Energy United Inc.

Private equity investment in industrials is on pace for a year-over-year increase in 2026 as fund managers latch onto the powerful trends in AI infrastructure, supply changes and defense. The announced value of private equity and venture capital deals targeting the industrial sector totaled $82.06 billion globally between Jan. 1 and May 31, compared with a full-year 2025 total of $140.99 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

The wreckage of a drone in downtown Dubai in March. Source: AFP via Getty Images Europe. The biggest banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are expected to achieve strong profits this year even as the US and Iran struggle to bring to an end the war that has roiled the region's economies. The war has severely impacted the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the other GCC nations, most notably due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz oil route.